Former Largo Star Leads George Mason Womens Basketball to New Heights

Patriots head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis has the Patriots in the big dance for the first time in school history

Brandy Simms | Mar 10, 2025

George Mason Patriots head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis, a graduate of Maryland's Largo High School, talks to the media after defeating the Saint Josephs Hawks to win the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Championship at Henrico Sports & Events Center. / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

The George Mason University women’s basketball program is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

By virtue of their 73-58 win Sunday over Saint Joseph’s, the Patriots (27-5) captured the Atlantic 10 tournament and clinched a spot in March Madness.

George Mason head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis, a Largo High School graduate, has turned around the women’s basketball program in a short period of time.

This has been a milestone season for Blair-Lewis and the George Mason women’s basketball program. The Patriots’ 27 wins are the most in the history of the program.

George Mason placed three players on the All-Championship team including Nalani Kaysia, Paula Suarez and Zahirah Walton who was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player.

“It’s just really exciting seeing where the program was and how quick it had changed and over the past few years we’ve been on the top,” said Suarez. “So it’s just really exciting seeing where we are right now.”

It doesn’t hurt that George Mason’s roster is littered with student-athletes from Maryland, Virginia and the Washington, D.C. area.

Blair-Lewis was once a standout at Largo High School in Prince George’s County, Maryland and began her coaching career as an assistant coach at her alma mater under the tutelage of her father, Robert Blair. In 2019, Blair-Lewis and her father were both enshrined in the inaugural Largo High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

She said her father’s words prior to the game on Sunday served as motivation for the win.

“My dad is in hospice right now,” Blair-Lewis explained. “I Face-Timed him before the game, he said ‘Go win.’…I really wish he could have been here.”

Published Mar 10, 2025

BRANDY SIMMS

Brandy Simms is an award-winning sports journalist who has covered professional, college and high school sports in the DMV for more than 30 years including the NFL, NBA and WNBA. He has an extensive background in both print and broadcast media and has freelanced for SLAM, Dime Magazine and The Washington Post. A former Sports Editor for The Montgomery County Sentinel, Simms captured first place honors in the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association 2006 Editorial Contest for a sports column entitled “Remembering Len Bias.” The Oakland, California native began his postgraduate career at WMAL-AM Radio in Washington, D.C. where he produced the market’s top-rated sports talk show “Sports Call” with host Ken Beatrice. A former Sports Director for “Cable News 21,” Simms also produced sports at WJLA-TV and served as host of the award-winning “Metro Sports Connection” program on Montgomery Community Television. Simms is a frequent contributor to various radio and television sports talk shows in the Washington, D.C. market. In 2024, he made his national television debut on “The Rich Eisen Show” on the Roku Channel. He began contributing to High School On SI in 2025.